Tracfone LG 800g Review

Table of Contents

Part 2 - Music, Games and Apps

In part 2 of this review we go over the mp3 music player and the ability to download and play or run games and Java apps.

MP3 Music Player

The LG 800g has an MP3 music player with a 3.5 mm jack for regular
stereo earphones or for hooking up to one of those external speaker
systems. You can transfer music from your computer via Bluetooth or
directly to the memory card. Once you start the music playing, you can
go back to the home screen, where the little icon with show that the
music is playing along with an abbreviated track and artist name. After a
few seconds, the screen goes into locked mode but still shows what’s
playing at the top of the screen above the clock.

Note that the music player shuts off when you go to messaging. To avoid that, consider the LG 840g instead.

Good Quality Sound

I don’t know what specs are in terms of bitrates, etc., but the sound
quality of the MP3 player can be really good. I heard a piece of
classical music, and it sounded great through
the earphones. I had ripped this track from one of my own CDs.

A pop song I downloaded online sounded OK but not that great. (Note: I like pop music.)

After relaxing (or rocking out) to some good music, you may want to get online.

Mobile Web

With the mobile web, you can get on Facebook, Twitter or My Space and
see what everyone’s up to. You can search the web and check your email
at Google, Yahoo, Bing and even AOL.

Even though the phone does
not claim to be a full HTML web browser, most web pages load okay.
Sometimes you may get a message that says, “Page too large. View mobile
site?”.

There’s also a full screen viewing mode to make the best use of the 3-inch screen.

Facebook

I know for a fact that the Facebook mobile site works well on the
phone as we have used up a lot of minutes checking out the latest status
updates so you need to...

Watch your Airtime Charges

Checking out Facebook on the phone is especially addictive of course, so
you do need to keep in mind that getting on the web does cost you
airtime. If this is an issue, you may want to consider getting the Net10
version of the phone. Then, you will have to option of switching to
their unlimited plan. If you check the web only now and then, when you
don’t have access to a computer, then sticking with the Tracfone version
may save you money on a yearly basis.

Once you have caught up with what’s going on around you, it's time to check out the games and apps.

Games and Apps

Games

There are two games pre-installed on this phone: Container Blocks and Castle Defense.

Container Blocks Game

Container Blocks is a puzzle game where you have to slide various blocks
out of the way so that you can move the containers across the screen.
The game even has "skins" which changes the appearance of the
containers. You use your finger to drag the blocks in one direction or
another.

While a pretty simple game, it was a hit with the
kids – they had reached level 158 before I took it away from them. The
game measures how many moves it takes you to get the container across,
and it gets more challenging as you go up the levels. In the beginning
when they hit a tough level they asked me for advice, but later on,
after I made a few bad moves, the kids resolved to tackle it on their
own.

Castle Defense

Castle Defense is an action game about a war between humans and monster.
You have a bunch of Goblins running around mazes with explosions.
Trading gold coins also appears to be involved. I have no idea how to
play this game but it looks like fun.

Full Games, not Demos

These are the only two games pre-installed. However, one nice thing,
again, is that these are full-featured games not crippled demo versions.
These games are great for this phone because you actually use the
touchscreen interface when you play.

Apps

Though this Tracfone can run Java apps, there are no pre-installed
apps on the phone. However, we ordered our handset the first weekend it
was available so I don’t know if that is still the case with the current
version or with the Net10 version.

Installing an App

To test that apps really do work, I did what I usually do, which is
download the Maps application from Google’s website. It worked.

However,
I was disappointed to find that moving around the map required
pressing the up, down, left, and right buttons on the touchscreen
interface. I wasn’t able to drag the map with my finger in the same way
that you can drag it around with your cursor on the computer.

So
one thing you have to watch for is that the Java apps you download may
be not be designed to take full advantage of a touch screen interface.

Airtime Charges

In addition to downloading apps via the phone, you may also use up
airtime with some apps because they connect to the internet. This can be
the case with simple-seeming free apps which access the internet in
order to display advertisements. So choose carefully.

We have covered the highlights. Now, let's go over the basic features.

Basic Features

Physical Features

The LG 800g is a lightweight phone at 3.06 ounces and has okay battery
life at 4 hours talk time and 8 days standby. The dimensions of the
phone are a convenient 4 inches in length and 2 inches in width. It's
thickness is about 7/16th's or an inch or just under half an inch.

Tool and Utilities

There is the usual set of tools and utilities included with your
Tracfone. At first glance, you might think some of the usual ones are
missing. Not to fear. All the menu options do not show up on the first
screen when you press the menu button. The calendar, the stopwatch and
the voice recorder are on the second menu screen. You access this screen
by swiping across the main menu screen on the display.

Bluetooth

I had no problems pairing it with my laptop equipped with a Bluetooth
adapter. I was able to send photos from the phone and music to the
phone.

For more details, you can access the...

Manual

You can download the manual (pdf) here. It is from the Net10 sister site. The manual is mostly text. There are no screenshots, but it is still useful.

Get One?

This is a good phone with a lot of well-thought out
features. Its sins are those of omission (no pre-installed apps). What
is included seems to work pretty great. It is also available from Net10
where you can use it with both the pay as you go plans as well as either
of the two 30 days plans, the 750-minute plan or the unlimited plan.

Update: Tracfone has dropped the price to $5 and offered with with their airtime bundle.

Free Shipping Offer

For Tracfone orders, shipping is free on orders $19.99 and up.

You may to get it with the Net10 plan.

Sometimes the reconditioned phone is offered by itself for just $5, but it doesn't qualify for free shipping at that price.

Phones

Misc.

Policies

Related Pages

This was part of a batch of prepaid phones

that could or were allowed to run Java apps that you could download from the both Tracfone and other sites. This meant you could make up for things it lacked such as an email reader. Here are some other handsets that are part of this batch.

The EX124g has a great 3.0 MP camera and an email client. Unfortunately (depending on your point of view) it also had a stylus that you sort of needed for the touchscreen.

The LG 900g has a very nice keyboard, screen and camera but limited memory for running apps.